Improvement of floodplain grazing marsh habitat at Upper Ray Meadows Nature Reserve Buckinghamshire

BBOWT’s Upper Ray Meadows Nature Reserve is 110ha of floodplain meadow habitat that straddles the Bucks/Oxon border adjacent to the A41 east of Bicester. This area is one of the best remaining locations in central England for wading birds such as curlew and lapwing who depend on open wet grassland habitats that are often associated with floodplains.

In Dec 2008, BBOWT acquired a major new site of Gallows Bridge Farm adjacent to its Three Points Meadow within this reserve. BBOWT is now carrying out a programme of hedge laying and trimming to open up the habitat and make it less suitable for predatory corvids and more suitable for wading birds.